YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. – In front of a soldout Beeghly Center on Friday night in Youngstown, Ohio, Oakland University Men's Basketball suffered a 77-73 loss to Youngstown State on Friday night as part of #HLMBB on ESPN2. 

A Keaton Hervey triple started off the Golden Grizzlies (9-13, 7-4 #HLMBB) with back-to-back makes from range with the home Penguins powering through early to take a four-point lead at 10-6 with 16:13 to go in the first half.

Blake Lampman, who returned to the lineup on Friday, made the team's third three-pointer in a row shortly after with Rocket Watts getting in on the action during the ensuing possession. The home Penguins would try to throw together a streak of points that just couldn't seem to shake the Golden Grizzlies as Chris Conway started off his eight-point night to reel in the red and black with 9:30 or so remaining.

Five points was all that Youngstown State could cushion themselves with, unlike the first time these two teams had met this season as Jalen Moore started to go to work on his seven first-half points as the clock ticked to under three minutes remaining in the first frame.

It was a free throw by Dwayne Cohill of YSU that handed the rowdy Penguin crowd the one-point edge heading into the locker room after the first 20 minutes of play.

Coming out of the break, it was Moore who charged up one of his famous second-half efforts as the Penguins began to roll at 42-39. A Watts three-pointer would knot the game up at 47-47 with 15:11 remaining as YSU stole back the lead on the other side of the court a short time later.

With 10:08 remaining in the game, an eight-point lead stirred up the Beeghly Center with the game at 60-52 as Moore and Hervey began to eat at Youngstown State's lead.

Crucial free throws from Townsend had the Penguins within striking distance as YSU reached a nine-point advantage with 2:28 remaining as the two made free throws from Moore and a cold-handed deep ball by Lampman reeled YSU back in.

Watts dropped in all three of his free throw attempts following a head-scratching foul by Youngstown State with 43 seconds remaining to make the game 76-73 only to send an opposing red jersey to the charity stripe where the Penguin would only hit one of his one-and-one opportunity. 

With two missed three-point attempts at the end of regulation, the Golden Grizzlies dropped three-straight games to the Penguins and fell to 7-4 in #HLMBB play.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Moore led the squad with 27 points and eight rebounds to best his average in the latter category
• Hervey tacked on 12 from his eight first-half points
• The Golden Grizzlies shot an even 50% (12-24) from deep to YSU's 40.9% (9-22)
• Oakland had 18 points off turnovers to the Penguins' 14
• Townsend was once again the team's leading rebounder with nine boards through 36 minutes of play
• The only bench player to register points was Conway, who finished with eight

The Golden Grizzlies continue the #HLMBB grind with Robert Morris on Sunday, January 29 at 1:00 pm in Moon Township, Pennsylvania on ESPN+.